Virginia Hamilton Books in Order

Spending summer on her uncle's farm, Elizabeth renames herself Geeder and becomes fascinated by tall, dignified Zeely Tayber. A photograph of an African queen convinces her Zeely is royalty, prompting a journey from imaginative invention toward understanding another person's life.

Thomas Small's family moves into an Ohio house once used on the Underground Railroad, where its abolitionist owner and two fugitives were murdered. Frightening incidents and hidden spaces draw Thomas into a mystery surrounding the house's history and present occupants.

Mama Luka cares for a young boy in Harlem after school and shares four tales of Jahdu, a powerful trickster. His magical adventures and growing pride give the child a way to imagine strength and possibility in his own life.

Musical prodigy Junior Brown and homeless Buddy Clark skip classes in a secret school cellar containing the janitor's model solar system. When their hiding place is discovered, Buddy must protect Junior as adult intervention and growing distress threaten their refuge.

Even as she learns her Harlem building will be demolished, Mama Luka continues catching stories from the air. More adventures of the trickster Jahdu offer imaginative escape and continuity while change threatens the familiar world around her.

Mayo Cornelius Higgins watches his mountain home from a forty-foot pole while a strip-mining spoil heap threatens to bury it. Two strangers suggest escape through his mother's singing and a different way of life, challenging his family's attachment to home.

This biography follows Paul Robeson's development as an athlete, actor, singer and political activist. It examines the relationship between his public achievements and convictions, including support for communism that damaged his popularity, placing his life within struggles over racial freedom.

Justice Douglass discovers psychic abilities while navigating tension between her older twin brothers, Thomas and Levi. Joined by their friend Dorian, the children find their powers connecting them, opening possibilities beyond ordinary family life and exposing conflicts within the group.

Twelve-year-old Arilla Adams searches for her own identity within a family of Black and Native American heritage. Her brother's emphatic identification with his Indigenous ancestry, family memories and ordinary school struggles complicate her efforts to understand where she belongs.

Justice, Thomas, Levi and Dorian use their psychic powers to enter a barren future inhabited by creatures desperate for water. Jealousy fractures their unity, turning the journey into a struggle to survive and find a route back to their time.

Trickster Jahdu discovers that something essential is missing when his transformations and tricks no longer work. A troublesome shadow and disappearing magic dust draw him beyond familiar horizons, where recovering his powers demands confronting the mischievous force disrupting his identity.

Justice and her companions return to the desolate future through their psychic connection and confront Mal, an entity whose immense power has gone wrong. Their struggle links the fate of Dustland's inhabitants with the children’s ability to remain united.

Fourteen-year-old Tree Pratt cares for her disabled older brother while their mother works away from home. Encounters with the ghost Brother Rush reveal scenes from the family's past, forcing Tree to confront painful memories and reconsider the people she loves.

God-child Pretty Pearl travels from Africa to Georgia with her brother John de Conquer and witnesses the suffering of enslaved people. Given a magical necklace and rules she must obey, she sets out to use her powers among humans.

During a family Halloween gathering in 1938, twelve-year-old Willie Bea navigates quarrels, cousins and the fascination of her aunt. Preparations for trick-or-treating are disrupted when Orson Welles's radio broadcast convinces relatives that Martians are invading and the world is ending.

Raised by loving grandparents after her mother's death and father's disappearance, seventeen-year-old Sheema Hadley struggles with shame and anger. Supported by boyfriend Forrest, she searches for her estranged father, seeking answers that might help her understand herself and her family.

This biography examines W. E. B. Du Bois's life as a scholar, writer, sociologist and advocate for Black rights. His achievements and setbacks reveal a sustained struggle against political and social restrictions while pursuing intellectual work and racial liberation.

Fifteen-year-old Junius misses the grandfather who raised him after the older man returns to his Caribbean homeland. A troubling letter about a missing cousin sends Junius and his father to the island, where family history and danger intersect.

Runner Talley Barbour befriends white newcomer Didi Adair when her school begins integrating through busing. As drugs destabilize Didi's relationship and Talley develops feelings for David, she confronts racial assumptions, loyalty and the complicated demands of friendship and romance.

Thomas Small and his family continue exploring the secrets of Drear House while his father catalogs its hidden antiques. Questions of ownership, threatening neighbors and unstable cavern walls endanger the treasure, drawing Thomas into conflicts tied to the Underground Railroad.

This historical account reconstructs Anthony Burns's escape from slavery to Boston in 1854 and his arrest under the Fugitive Slave Act. Abolitionists and lawyer Richard Dana rally to his defense as the case provokes riots and federal military intervention.

Twenty-five creation stories explore how different cultures imagine the beginnings of the world and humanity. Virginia Hamilton retells these accounts with commentary, inviting readers to consider the varied traditions through which people explain their origins.

Twelve-year-old Jason Bell eagerly awaits Christmas in 1890 as his middle-class Black family prepares for the holiday in Ohio. The story follows their anticipation and domestic preparations, placing a child's excitement within the rhythms and customs of nineteenth-century family life.

Eleven-year-old Cammy adores her grandmother and brother but resents her seemingly perfect cousin Patty Ann. Rivalry and complicated family loyalties give her angry wishes a troubling weight when an irreversible event forces her to reconsider love, resentment and forgiveness.

Folktales, legends, and myths from cultures around the world lead into supernatural realms. Virginia Hamilton gathers stories of the spirit world, inviting readers to encounter the strange forces and unseen presences that shape different traditions.

Jahdu returns in fifteen tales blending earlier adventures with four new stories. Drawing on trickster traditions while creating an original character, Virginia Hamilton follows his lively exploits, using wit and imagination to explore power, identity, and the surprises of storytelling.

Lindy's farming family struggles through a drought until a mysterious boy arrives with a dust storm. Calling himself Drylongso, he offers knowledge of water hidden beneath the earth, bringing unfamiliar skills and hope to a household threatened by its land.

This illustrated history traces African Americans' passage from slavery toward freedom through the voices and experiences of those who lived it. Accounts of enslavement, resistance and escape place individual lives within the wider history of bondage in the United States.

Twelve-year-old Buhlaire Sims begins questioning the family stories she has always accepted, especially the claim that her father is missing in action. Locked belongings, absent childhood photographs and school isolation prompt her to investigate the secrets shaping her identity.

Nineteen stories center Black women and girls in folktales, fairy tales, and accounts of real lives. Virginia Hamilton’s retellings move through magical encounters and inherited memories, preserving the imagination, resilience, and voices of generations of storytellers.

Birds become lively characters in African American folktales rooted in the plantation-era South. Retold from stories gathered by Martha Young, these adventures use humor and imagination to honor the human spirit under hardship and preserve a rich storytelling tradition.

Animal tricksters use wit to overcome powerful opponents in tales from America, the West Indies, and Africa. Following stories carried through the slave trade, the collection links characters such as Bruh Fox, Anansi Spider, and Cunnie Rabbit across traditions.

When strangers destroy the safety of his rainforest home, Rundi Jaguarundi considers fleeing north to find a better life. His conversations with other animals explore whether they can leave together and how to survive a landscape transformed by human intrusion.

A year after Patty Ann's death, Cammy has found comfort in her close friendship with Elodie. The arrival of sophisticated New York relatives for a family reunion brings secrets and shifting loyalties that threaten that friendship and unsettle the family.

Dreenie watches classmate Natalie, nicknamed Bluish, with fascination and fear because of her wheelchair and the effects of chemotherapy. As Dreenie and Tuli come to know her, they confront uncertainty about illness and discover a friendship beyond their initial assumptions.

Quashiba's mother claims she can spin gold, prompting a king to marry her and demand impossible riches. A sinister little creature offers to do the work, but Quashiba must guess his full name within three nights or be carried away.

Eleven-year-old Valena learns of her great-grandfather's escape through the Underground Railroad during a summer of family stories. His history intersects with prejudice in her own rural town, helping her connect the past with her present life and emerging future.

Bruh Rabbit wants food from Bruh Wolf's garden without doing the work, repeatedly testing his rival's patience. Wolf devises a sticky tar baby girl to trap the thief, setting off a contest of trickery in this retelling of the folktale.

In this picture-book retelling of an African American folktale, enslaved people suffer under conditions until remembered African magic offers escape. The ability to fly becomes a possibility of freedom, connecting endurance and hope with a heritage oppression could not erase.

Young James Lee discovers that a witch has cursed Uncle Big Anthony and rides him through the night sky. When Wee Winnie takes James along, Mamma Granny must use her knowledge of the witch's habits to confront the enchantment.

This collection gathers Virginia Hamilton's speeches, essays and conversations across three decades of her career. Edited by Arnold Adoff and Kacy Cook, it explores her process, storytelling principles and views on the writer's responsibilities and the themes of her fiction.